The Death of TV?

Well, not quite, alas, but certainly an interesting shift:

We think we know that the professional news media, especially newspapers, are obsolete, that the future is all about (excuse the expression) you—media created by amateurs. But such PowerPoint distillation tends to overlook the fact that mainstream media are not all simply shriveling and dying but in some instances actually evolving. And in evolution, there are always fascinating transitional iterations along the way. Such as newspapers’ suddenly proliferating forays into online video. (And now magazines: Time Inc. just announced a new “studio” to develop Web video.)

Whereas the YouTube paradigm is amateurs doing interesting things with cameras, the newspapers’ Web videos are professional journalists operating like amateurs in the best old-fashioned sense.

What seems to be happening here is that blogs are eating newspapers' lunch, so the newspapers are eating TV's lunch. Sounds fair to me. (Via PaidContent.)

The Man Who Would Not Compromise

Here's another journalist who has discovered RMS's impressive rigour when it comes to free software:

But once I notified Richard Stallman of my desire to proceed in converting and uploading also the Ogg Theora video files he wrote back:

"Yes, that is the right solution.

In the mean time, please delete the clips from YouTube. They were never supposed to be posted on YouTube."

I felt bad again, immediately. I understood the man had ideals and principles that went beyond my interest to inform and share rare to find information.

Indies not so Independent

When I saw this:

The world's biggest record label, albeit a "virtual" one, emerged today at the Midemnet conference in Cannes.

Indies have found themselves treated as second class citizens or ignored altogether in the era of digital music. The new organization Merlin will act as a global rights licensing agency, and represents the growing influence of the independent sector acting collectively.

My heart leapt. Could it be, I said to myself, that we might see some independent thinking in the music biz at last - you, know, no DRM, sensible pricing, that kind of stuff?

Nope:

Alison Wenham of the UK-based Association for Independent Music (AIM) confirmed that indies would demand the removal of content from sites such as YouTube if they didn't cut Merlin a similar deal to the one negotiated by Universal Music, the world's biggest label.

Clearly, this Merlin the wizard ain't so wise: YouTube = free publicity = more sales.

Open Fabbers Made Easy

I've written before about open fabbers - effectively 3D printers that can make anything - and how it's crucial for there to be open versions of this important technology. But openness isn't enough: a design that was open but still cost millions to implement wouldn't have much practical impact. What are needed are open designs that are low-cost and relatively easy to construct.

A hint of the kind of thing that may be possible can be found in this video. It shows a mini-fabber that produces cars - Lego cars to be precise. But what's really interesting is that the fabber itself is made largely out of Lego. There's more on this project and on related issues in a fascinating post at Open the Future.

TV's Spiralling Vortex of Ruin

Sounds good to me, in a double sense: form and content. (Via IP Democracy.)

On Sharing and Fake Sharing

Larry Lessig has some wise words on what Flickr gets right and YouTube gets wrong.

Google's Legal Opportunity

In a comment to a previous post about Google's acquisition of YouTube, I muttered something about Google having losts of dosh and good lawyers to see off the inevitable lawsuits that will follow that move. Here's a rather more thoughtful take on that, ending with the following interesing idea:

So I think the YouTube acquisition may well represent a legal opportunity for Google (and the Internet industry generally), rather than a vulnerability. After all, litigation to define the copyright rules for new online services are inevitable -- better to choose your battles and plan for them, rather than fleeing the fight and letting some other company create bad precedents that will haunt you later.

Google Shoots an Elephant

So Google has done the deed, and bought YouTube.

I can't help thinking of a story by George Orwell, called Shooting an Elephant. In it he describes how, as a police officer in Burma, he was called to deal with a rogue elephant.

He went with his gun, and an expectant crowd gathered. It soon became clear that the elephant had calmed down, and posed no danger. But Orwell realised that despite this, he was going to have to shoot the elephant: the crowd that had gathered expected it of him, and whether it was the right thing to do or not, he had to do it. And so he did.

It seems to me that Google's acquisition has much in common with this story. Once news started leaking out, the crowd gathered, and Google had to buy YouTube, whether it was the right thing or not, because the crowd expected it.

In the same way, there is now a growing expectation that Yahoo will buy something big - anything - to "counter" Google's move. And so another crowd begins to form, and another elephant must needlessly die.

Open Content Meets YouTube

Yale has jumped on the open courseware bandwagon - with a twist:

Yale University is producing digital videos of selected undergraduate courses that it will make available for free on the Internet through a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Happily, this is rather more than just open courseware for the YouTube generation:

The project will create multidimensional packages—including full transcripts in several languages, syllabi, and other course materials—for seven courses and design a web interface for these materials, to be launched in the fall of 2007.

(Via LXer.)

Why YouTube is Napster 2.0

Being of the older generation, I've never really gone wild over YouTube. But I recognise and salute its cultural importance, because it represents yet another instance of people's innate desire to share. But as this post by fellow old fogey John Battelle points out, YouTube has a big problem: the majority of its content is basically illegal according to current copyright laws.

So here we have a young people's phenomenon that is spreading like wildfire, and that is doomed once the Content Commissariat realise what's going on and decide to get their legal clubs out. In other words, it's Napster 2.0.